AN OIL SKETCH by Louis Laguerre in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Fig.15), has long been assumed to depict The marriage of Cupid and Psyche for the decora- tion of the staircase ceiling commissioned by Thomas Os- borne, 1st Duke of Leeds, for Kiveton House, Yorkshire, which was destroyed in 1812.1 Nonetheless it can now be clearly associated with the extant staircase ceiling mural at Petworth House, West Sussex, executed by Laguerre in 1719, the subject of which is Pandora receiving gifts from the gods (Fig.16).2 Moreover, the identification of the subject of this sketch prompts us to look again at the iconogra- phy of the staircase at Petworth, a house that includes other murals by Laguerre, and on the circumstances surrounding the commission, carried out during the lifetimes of Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset (1662–1748), and his ex- ceptionally wealthy wife, the heiress of Petworth and other Percy family estates, Lady Elizabeth (1667–1722).